Spiritual Commitment

THE GRAND PRIORY OF ENGLAND

The Grand Priory of England was established around
1144. It was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540 and not
restored until 1993 – nearly 450 years later.

The role of the Grand Priory is to care for the
members’ spiritual life and set an example of Christian
living – the continuing of the Order’s one thousand year
tradition of ‘tuitio fidei’. Members of the Grand Priory
may take extra vows (poverty, chastity and obedience) to
become Professed members of the Order of Malta. Their
lives are dedicated to prayer and good works.

The religious inspiration of the Order

The Order of Malta has been a religious Order
since 1113, the year it was recognised by Pope
Paschal II. As a religious Order, it is linked to
the Holy See, but at the same time it is independent
as a sovereign subject of international law. In this
respect the religious character of the Order
coexists with its full sovereignty. The Grand Master
is at the same time head of a sovereign State and
head of a religious Order. In this second capacity
the Holy Roman Church gives him the rank of
Cardinal. The Order of Malta is a lay religious
Order according to Canon Law, where some of its
members are religious - they have professed the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience - and
others have taken a special vow of obedience, while
the great majority of the knights and dames are lay
members. The Grand Master of the Order is elected
from among the Professed Knights of Perpetual Vows.
The eight-pointed Cross which symbolises the Order
represents the eight Beatitudes and is thus a visual
memento of its spirituality. According to the
Constitutional Charter, members of the Order are
required to maintain exemplary Christian behaviour
in their private and public life, contributing to
the maintenance of the Order's traditions.

According to Constitutional Charter rules, the
Pope appoints a Cardinal as his representative to
the Order, the Cardinalis Patronus, whose duty it is
to promote the spiritual interests of the Order and
of its members and to maintain relations with the
Holy See. The Pope also appoints the Prelate of the
Order from the three candidates proposed by the
Grand Master. The Prelate is the ecclesiastic
superior of the Order's clergy.

The Order remains true to its inspiring
principles: defence of the Faith and service to the
suffering. Its members share the same vocation and
strive together for solidarity, justice and peace,
based on the teaching of the Gospels and in the
closest communion with the Holy See. They are
involved in active and dynamic charity supported by
prayer. No Knight or Dame is such by privilege of
birth or merits acquired, but for having answered to
the call to be where there is a material or moral
need, where there is suffering. Wherever they
settled, the Knights Hospitallers always established
first a Hospital and Hospice and then, if they
needed to, built defence fortifications. What does
being a Hospitaller mean in the Third Millennium? It
means dedicating oneself to easing suffering and to
bringing the balm of Christian charity to the sick,
anywhere in the world, not only in hospitals but
also in private homes and nursing homes in the
shantytowns of destitute populations. The Order does
not only dedicate itself to the sick, but to the
socially isolated, the victims of persecution and
the refugees of any race and religious faith as well.